Ill winds could blow some good for Bush

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AS HURRICANE Rita approaches, just hours from the coast of
Texas, some in the White House believe the ill wind might offer
President George Bush a political ray of sunshine.

If the mandatory evacuations go according to plan  nearly
2 million people have left the threatened coastal areas  and
if state and federal emergency services perform competently,
perhaps the memory of the Bush Administration's disastrous bungling
over hurricane Katrina will begin to fade.

Perhaps the images of poor black people crying out for food and
water in the flooded streets of New Orleans, of bodies floating in
the flood, of the old and sick left to die in hospital beds and
wheelchairs, will become less raw and wounding.

There is every indication that Bush is determined to show he has
learnt the bitter lessons of Katrina.

Dressed in sombre dark suits to match his sombre countenance,
President Bush has repeated a message over and over: hurricane Rita
may cause terrible damage, but it is his job to ensure that
everything that can be done to minimise the suffering will be
done.

To that end he has phoned the mayor of every town that could be
affected by Rita, he has been in regular touch with the Texas
Governor, he has had numerous briefings from his Homeland Security
Secretary.

And he plans to travel to Texas to check the preparations. The
message is that he has learnt from past mistakes and he is the
forceful leader that until recently a majority of Americans
believed him to be.

If there is a ray of political sunshine, it is a weak one,
likely to have only a minimal impact on the damage from Katrina. In
the process of destroying New Orleans, Katrina may well have
seriously damaged the Bush presidency.

The polls are dreadful and getting worse. Rather than reverse
the trend, Bush's address to the nation a week ago, where he
promised to provide "whatever it costs" to rebuilt New Orleans,
seems to have accelerated the slide.

What is more, his spend-whatever-it-takes strategy  which
could cost more than $US200 billion ($A263 billion)  has
divided the Republican Party.

An increasing number of senior Republicans are openly
contemptuous of the Administration's ability to spell out just how
it will pay for this massive commitment.

Bush has ruled out tax rises and refused to discuss delaying
capital gains and income tax cuts or shelving plans to abolish
inheritance taxes.

After a meeting with the White House budget director,
presidential hopeful John McCain said the meeting was entertaining,
but he had heard nothing to suggest the Administration knew what it
was doing.

With the budget deficit already projected to be more than $US330
billion next year, with more than $US200 billion spent in
Afghanistan and Iraq and continuing costs of $US5 billion a month,
Americans are asking where the money will come from to pay for the
President's promise to New Orleans.

What the polls show, and what nervous Republicans fear, is that
Bush is no longer seen as a strong and decisive leader, that
Americans believe his handling of the economy has led to record
petrol prices, and that he has no real plan for winning the war in
Iraq.

Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House and a stalwart
supporter of the Administration, reckons President Bush faces the
greatest crisis of his presidency. He argues that the party could
suffer significant losses at next year's mid-term congressional
elections.

As hurricane Rita approached Texas, Bush gathered key members of
his Administration at a Pentagon news conference to restate his
determination to "stay the distance" in Iraq. The war on terror had
to be won, democracy was on the march in Iraq, there would be no
backing down during his presidency.

But with petrol prices set to spike again and with the
Republican-controlled Congress brawling over how to pay for
rebuilding New Orleans, many are wondering how many Americans were
listening and, of those who were, how many believed him.

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1126982233931-theage.com.auhttp://www.theage.com.au/news/world/ill-winds-could-blow-some-good-for-bush/2005/09/23/1126982233931.htmltheage.com.auThe Age2005-09-24Ill winds could blow some good for BushMichael Gawenda <br />WashingtonWorld